10 Things I'm Looking Forward to This Fall

1. A family visit! My mom and brother are coming to Hawaii in October.

2. Dressing up at work for Halloween. I haven't decided if I want to wear my Hermione costume again or come up with something new.

3. TV shows coming back! I'm especially looking forward to "This Is Us" and "Poldark." "Stranger Things," too.

4. Pumpkins! Those jolly orange squashes make me so happy.

5. Going to the University of Hawaii vs. Colorado State (my alma mater) football game.

6. Baking apple dumplings from my grandma's delicious recipe. Plus pumpkin desserts galore!

7. Trick-or-treaters! We had TONS of kids last year. I love seeing their costumes.

8. Seeing the results of our family photo shoot (with crazy puppy) on the beach. I'm not exactly looking forward to doing the shoot next week, but I'm so anxious to see how the pictures turn out!

9. Starbucks pumpkin scones. I don't usually splurge on pastries with my coffee, but those scones are so good. I tried to make a copycat recipe a couple years ago, but they didn't come out the same.

10. Finally getting to see "Wonder Woman" and "Guardians of the Galaxy 2." We wanted to see them in the theater but it just didn't happen (if you can believe it, we haven't been to the movie theater since "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"), but we'll be able to watch them on DVD soon!

What are you looking forward to this fall?

10 Things... I'm Looking Forward to This Summer

Welcome to a new occasional feature on the blog, 10 Things! I'm sure you're realized by now that I love lists -- to-do lists, book lists, bucket lists -- and I figured, hey, might as well add one more! 10 Things will be just what it sounds like: me listing off 10 things on a given topic. Tomorrow is June 1 -- the unofficial start of summer -- so I thought to start I'd list some things I'm looking forward to in the next couple months. What are you looking forward to this summer?

1. "Game of Thrones" comes back on in July!

2. Taking Alohi to the beach for the first time.

3. Jarrod's work schedule evening out after a few months of craziness. He should be on a fairly normal Monday through Friday schedule and be home for dinner every night. Can't ask for more than that!

4. Getting to the beach more; I've only been once since we got Alohi at the beginning of February! Now that she's a little older, I don't feel quite as bad abandoning her in her crate for a couple hours to get in some beach time.

5. 4th of July fireworks!

6. Trying more pineapple recipes. I've added a few to our regular dinner rotation and I want to find some more -- we have two years left to eat all the island-fresh pineapple we can!

7. Reading more backlist and books I own -- hopefully this'll help me get my first 5-star read of the year! I've resolved to take a break from new releases during the month of June... we'll see if I can stay strong and resist temptation.

8. Casting on for my So Faded sweater, as well as finally trying out one of the adorable embroidery kits I ordered from Etsy a while back. (Which to do first? Puffin, fox or raccoon? Decisions, decisions!)

9. Getting new neighbors! We happen to have the least sociable bunch of neighbors on the planet -- despite living in military housing -- but our next-door neighbors just moved out! Fingers crossed that the new people at least feel like chatting once in a while. Bonus if they have a dog to make friends with Alohi!

10. Snorkeling and hiking! We've been back in Hawaii a year now and haven't done either -- which is just nuts!